""it is not clear how much of this is down to AI overviews,""
""Queries around 'hard news' subjects in Google have been largely exempted from overviews, perhaps because of so-called hallucinations,""
""Publishers that specialize in lifestyle or utility content such as weather, TV guides, or horoscopes are more likely to have been affected.""
Chartbeat data covering 2,756 news sites indicates a steep drop in Google search traffic over the past year: 33% worldwide and 38% in the US. Much of the decline outside the US occurred after Google rolled out AI Overview search results that provide multi-paragraph, software-generated answers that often require additional clicks to reach source links. Digital Context Next earlier reported a smaller, roughly 10% decline among its members, indicating variation by measurement and site selection. A senior research associate said attribution to AI overviews is uncertain and noted hard-news queries have largely been exempted. Publishers focused on lifestyle or utility content such as weather, TV guides, or horoscopes are likelier to be affected. Google responded that its data does not show dramatic drops, questioned the selected site sample, and highlighted missing Google News click-through figures.
Read at PCMag UK
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